The cover of Early Stuart Libels

Never was bestowed such an art

Upon the tuning of a fart

- The Censure of the Parliament Fart, 1607

Political betrayal, royal scandal and farts in parliament were not openly talked about in the early 17th century thanks to strict libel laws, writes Polly Curtis. But it's what everyone was thinking – and writing – about, in the form of poems commentating on the scurrilous, scandalous and downright filthy goings-on in the corridors of power. Now, after having languished unread for centuries in the British Library and the Bodleian at Oxford, 350 such poems have been published in a web-based collection entitled Early Stuart Libels and complete with commentary by Exeter University's medieval historian Andrew McRae.

According to McRae, The Parliament Fart is in fact to do with the power struggle between parliament and the monarchy that was going on at the time, and suggests that "in that context you could argue that the fart becomes an illicit form of political debate." McRae compares the poems, which were circulated among the 17th century's rich and powerful, to the Guardian's own Steve Bell. "A lot of the poems are performing the function of a good political cartoonist, so that readers are left to decide for themselves whether to treat these poems as fact or scurrilous rumour and conjecture, just as a political cartoonist such as Steve Bell might," McRae concludes. Read the full story here.